As Inigo Montoya says in The Princess Bride, “Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.” Monday of this week was day fourteen—halfway through the four-week schedule that I’m working on. I was looking for at least 25,000 words by midnight Monday to stay on track with the NaNo website suggested pace. There was no problem with that. I kicked that goal in the butt two and a half days ahead of schedule!
My personal goal was 30,000 and my “setting the bar too high” goal was 35,000 words. The reason for those numbers is that my novel is planned for between 60,000 and 70,000 words and this would put me halfway through. I ended the second week with 34,463 words and I have no complaints. I only missed the high bar by 537 words! I’d written to the end of the chapter, was at a good stopping place, and it was after 11 p.m. My eyes were bleeding and my brain had fallen out through my ear and crawled off to bed an hour before.
I think the second week in some ways was harder than the first. The reality of the goal was settling in and I had a lot of things on my plate for last week, but the chapter outline that I reworked helped to keep me on track and focused. I did go back and add in the chapters for the “possible bad guy.” I’m going to leave it worded that way because I don’t want to ruin the story for you.
However, it was also an excellent week in many ways. My favorite college football team won and I managed to write through the distraction of chores, college football, and the second to the last race of the season for NASCAR.
What really got me through last week though was the tons of encouragement I received from my friends and family. When I mentioned that I was thinking about how to get my heroine out of the trunk she’d been confined in, many people chimed in with suggestions and comments. Some of those comments led me to make notes for a future book. My neighbor let me measure her trunk and even crawled inside to show me how a woman the size of my heroine would fit in the space.
I have some terrific friends!
I also rewarded myself with a chocolate malt for exceeding the NaNo goal.
The goals for 21 November, which will be the end of week three are:
NaNo Weekly goal: 37,500 – I passed that one on 15 November
My Minimum goal: 45,000 – I’m pretty close to that now
My High Bar goal: 52,500
Wish me luck – I’ll keep you posted.
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